Maritozzi Horsies My girlfriend likes horses, and pastry. So naturally, she sent me a short some day, where someone baked horses based on cream and sweet yeast buns. I blatantly stole the idea and reverse engineered the recipe for myself. If you also have a partner/child whoever that likes horses, I can only recommend 😊. The buns are basically maritozzi, which are Italian cream filled, sweet yeast buns with a touch of lemon. If you want a little less work, you can of course leave the horse stuff and enjoy easy-to-make, delicious maritozzi. But it’s the year of the horse so don’t be lazy and embarrass yourself 😊. The maritozzi recipe itself I had from this page: www.einfachbacken.de/rezepte/maritozzi-rezept-wie-italien Dough: 450 g flour 50 g sugar 1 packet active dry yeast 1 tsp lemon zest 1 egg (size M) 60 ml oil 1 pinch of salt 250 ml milk, warm Egg Wash: 1 egg 1 tbsp heavy cream Some sugar Whipped Cream Filling: 400 ml heavy whipping cream 1.5 packets vanilla sugar 1 packet whip stabilizer (“Sahnesteif”) some lemon juice Decoration: Almonds (for the ears) Mocha beans (for the nostrils) White chocolate glaze (for the muzzle) Sugar eyes Icing (Lots of powdered sugar mixed with hot water until pasty, as glue for the eyes; reheat in the microwave briefly if necessary) “Choco Crossies” or anything similar for the mane Instructions: 1. Dough: Mix the dry ingredients, add the remaining ingredients, and knead with dough hooks or by hand for 3 minutes. Let the dough rise for 45 minutes. Add a little more flour if necessary so that it is easy to work with (I placed the bowl into a bigger bowl acting as a warm water bath; the dough didn't quite double in size, but that’s fine). 2. After 45 minutes, shape 9–10 rolls and let them rest on a baking sheet for 15 minutes. 3. Brush with the egg wash for brown colour and bake in a convection oven at 160°C for about 18–20 minutes until golden brown (if necessary, move to the top rack toward the end for better browning). 4. Cut the rolls almost all the way through the middle and let them cool completely. If still warm, the whipped cream will melt when applied. Also it may be helpful to cut a v-shape, to help the cream stay in place 5. Brush the lower half of the cut with the white chocolate glaze and let it cool. 6. Pierce small slits for the nostrils and ears and attach the decorations. 7. Finally, pipe in the whipped cream filling using a piping bag.